PISA
A field experiment on field vegetables was set-up at the Centre for Agri-environmental Research “Enrico Avanzi” (San Piero a Gerado, Italy) by establishing a 2-yr crop rotation between: savoy cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. sabauda L.), spring lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) and summer lettuce. The crop rotation is being performed both in space and in time, thus each crop is present every year.
The three treatments are displaced as following:
1) INT
TILLAGE: conventional tillage (annual spading+rotary cultivation)
COVER CROPS: no cover crops are grown;
WEED CONTROL: herbicide application in pre-transplanting and post-transplanting;
FERTILIZATION: mineral fertilization
PLANT PROTECTION: IPM strategies based on biocontrol agents, fungicides and insecticides;
2) ORG
TILLAGE: conventional tillage (annual spading+rotary cultivation);
COVER CROPS: field pea (Pisum sativum L.) – fava bean (Vicia faba subsp. minor L.) mixture grown as spring green manure and incorporated into the soil before summer lettuce transplanting; red cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) – buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum L.) – millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) – foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) mixture grown as summer green manure and incorporated into the soil before transplanting of fennel
WEED CONTROL: preventive (residual effect of green manure, stale seedbed technique), mechanical (inter-row cultivation);
FERTILIZATION: organic fertilizers
PLANT PROTECTION: IPM strategies based on biocontrol agents, biofungicides and bioinsecticides;
3) ORG+
TILLAGE: no-tillage;
COVER CROPS: red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) directly seeded and established as a living mulch for spring lettuce and cabbage; red cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) – buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum L.) – millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) – foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) mixture grown as summer green manure and terminated as dead mulch by roller crimper and flaming before transplanting of fennel
WEED CONTROL: preventive (suppression effect by the dead mulch provided by the cover crops in tomato, and by the living mulch in wheat) and physical (inter-row flaming);
FERTILIZATION: organic fertilizers
PLANT PROTECTION: IPM strategies based on biocontrol agents, biofungicides and bioinsecticides;